If an opportunity arises, I have to tear the rope by force and throw a punch.

I tried to calm my racing heart and glared at the man in front of me.

Jaeyeon, his face flushed, was breathing roughly. The blade he held brushed against my neck.

“...You really did lose your memory and turn stupid, huh?”

I could feel his hand trembling faintly with excitement. A thin cut formed, and I felt blood trickle down.

“Seeing you without your usual composure is a bit refreshing, though.”

“What’s your problem.”

My vision steadied a little. I gauged the tension of the ropes binding my arms.

“As you can see, I don’t remember anything. What the hell did I do?”

“Seriously, you’re fucking annoying.”

Jaeyeon spat the words and slapped me across the face.

A burning pain exploded, my head jerking to the left.

“Speak properly.”

I slowly turned my head back and said,

“Unless you’re the kind of person who beats people out of whim.”

Thud.

A punch.

This time, on the right side. Always the same spot — typical of Jaeyeon. The taste of blood filled my mouth. I frowned and spat out the blood pooling fast inside.

Turning my head back again, I searched for a way to provoke him further. If I got under his skin, I could buy a chance to loosen the ropes and strike back — and keep his attention away from Yehyeon.

“Jaeyeon. Tell me what you want, but do it properly.”

“Why so cold? I’m trying to help you.”

His attitude shifted in an instant.

I looked up at him, incredulous at the man staring down at me with a hurt expression.

Right — that was him. His moods flipped like a switch, sickeningly unstable.

Jaeyeon lowered his eyebrows, leaned his head down, and rested his forehead against mine. A quiet sigh brushed my ear.

“Haa... you really don’t trust me.”

“Say it, and I’ll trust you.”

I gently encouraged him.

“How exactly are you going to help me?”

I didn’t bring up Yehyeon at all. I pretended the man lying crumpled nearby wasn’t even there. Asking why he had beaten him to a pulp would only make him lose his mind and hit the unconscious man again.

Jaeyeon chuckled.

He lifted his head and leaned close. Drops of what must have been Yehyeon’s blood ran down his nose and fell onto my face. I felt him play with a strand of my hair with his free hand.

Toying with my hair, Jaeyeon spoke softly.

“You said you forgot everything. I should help you remember, right?”

I answered in the same smooth tone.

“Then you should tell me.”

I ignored the shallow cuts forming on my neck from his teasing blade.

“What did I do to you?”

“You betrayed your own kind.”

I raised an eyebrow, dumbfounded.

“And why are you mad about that?”

“If you were going to curse us with eternal life, you should have stood with your kind and won the war — or you should have never cursed us at all while betraying them...”

For the first time, his voice stretched long, simmering with fury.

His face twisted in rage, and something like fire blazed in his eyes.

The blade glowing near my neck swung upward into the air.

“Now I can’t even hope to die of old age!”

Thunk.

My shoulder was stabbed. The finely honed blade drove into my flesh. A sharp pain radiated from my right shoulder, and I let out a short gasp.

It had been a long time since I was stabbed like this. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

If I get the chance, I’ll punch him with my left hand. Clenching and unclenching the uninjured hand bound behind me, I looked up at Jaeyeon, who was panting with rage.

“Is this about Colton?”

Judging by the fury swelling in his eyes, I had guessed right.

“It’s not my fault that bastard won’t die.”

He kicked me in the stomach.

The air left my lungs. After a few choking coughs, I could breathe again.

“Not your fault?”

Jaeyeon looked utterly deranged.

“Not your fault? Before you came, humans used to age and die. They took Botox, pulled their skin with threads, swallowed anti-aging drugs, built walls around themselves — and still, they aged and died! If they were wounded, they rotted and died; if they burned, they turned to ash; if they were crushed, they were flattened and died!”

“We die too.”

My voice was flat, emotionless.

“You, Colton — all of us.”

He kicked me again.

The chair toppled backward. My body hit the floor hard. Before Jaeyeon could rush in, I tore the ropes off my wrists by brute force.

As he yanked the knife out of my shoulder, I swung with my left hand.

Thud.

I hit his right cheek squarely. Jaeyeon’s body flew sideways, crashing into the wall.

I had to take that knife. I tore through the ropes at my ankles, sprang up, and lunged at him.

Even while staggering, Jaeyeon kicked accurately. His foot hit me, but I bent forward and reached for the knife. I couldn’t grab the handle, so I seized the broken edge of the blade with my right hand.

“You idiot—!”

Jaeyeon shouted, throwing a punch with his free hand.

“So you do remember how to use a knife, huh?”

We fought for a while.

The strength behind his blows was immense. The knife we both struggled to control finally broke in half. I swung with the broken piece in my hand, and Jaeyeon did the same with his. Flesh split, and blood sprayed.

Damn it. My right shoulder wouldn’t move properly.

Crash!

A dizzying impact struck the back of my head. Taking advantage of my hesitation, Jaeyeon slammed me into the corner.

He spat blood and came toward me.

The wounds on his body were already healing.

Unfair. We passed them the Enhanced Body technology, yet why was our regeneration so slow while theirs was ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) this fast?

Jaeyeon stepped on me as I tried to get up.

“When he gives me an order, I carry it out.”

He muttered as if talking to himself, reaching into his pocket.

“I’m a diligent man. Don’t you think?”

What he pulled out was a syringe.

The moment I saw it, Colton’s words at the meeting flashed through my mind — how he’d said he would “help,” that he’d “try something.”

So that’s what this was. It had to be.

But I wasn’t about to let him inject me with whatever that was.

I kicked Jaeyeon’s left foot. He staggered, cursing, “Fuck!”

Even as he fell, he pressed down on my right shoulder.

“You crazy bastard!”

I cursed, pushing the approaching needle away from my neck.

“Is this what you do to a friend you just reunited with?!”

“You should’ve come to our side as soon as you got back.”

...Of course.

With that single line, I understood everything.

Colton had loosened his leash just enough for Jaeyeon to kidnap both me and Yehyeon right after the meeting.

Because Colton didn’t like that I had chosen Yehyeon’s side.

He wouldn’t have been angry enough to kill me, but I’d clearly provoked him. That was who he was — a man who had to keep the world beneath his feet.

“If I’m going down, I’ll burn everything.”

When had he said that?

The stray fragment of memory distracted me — and Jaeyeon didn’t miss the opening.

The sharp needle pierced the vein in my neck.

Thunk.

“Ah.”

“Good boy.”

Jaeyeon laughed as I instinctively grabbed his arm.

“Don’t struggle.”

The needle withdrew from my neck.

A stabbing pain followed — then lightness, dizziness.

Jaeyeon smiled as he backed away.

My senses burst open.

“Haa—!”

What the hell—

“I feel... dizzy...”

I couldn’t even finish the sentence.

Information flooded in. I clamped my mouth shut, trying to withstand the rush of sensations.

All five senses became unbearably sharp. It wasn’t like taking drugs — everything felt too real.

The pain in my shoulder, Jaeyeon’s sharp laughter, the texture of the wall against my back. The scent of blood and steel stabbed at my nose, and my vision sharpened further. There was too much — too much to process.

And on top of the overload came another feeling.

A flow of sensations running through the parts of my body that could still move.

This — I had never managed to make Colton understand it.

“Looks like you’ve awakened, huh?”

Jaeyeon’s amused voice reached my ears.

“How does it feel?”

Drenched in cold sweat, I barely lifted my head.

Panting, I looked up at him — the empty syringe discarded on the floor, the broken knife still in his hand, his face twisted in a monstrous grin.

If he charged at me now, I’d die.

But he wouldn’t kill me — Colton wouldn’t have allowed that. Still, he wouldn’t let me go peacefully either. Now all that was left was for Jaeyeon to unleash his fury.

There’d be a gap in that onslaught — I just had to catch it—

The instant Jaeyeon lifted his boot, the wall of the narrow room exploded.

KWAANG!

Yun’s kick landed squarely on Jaeyeon’s side. Jaeyeon’s body slammed into the opposite wall. Clutching my bleeding shoulder, I watched my superior stride forward, coat flaring.

“Yun.”

Lying sprawled on the floor, Jaeyeon coughed blood and laughed.

“Long time no see.”

He couldn’t say more.

Yun, expressionless, grabbed Jaeyeon’s black hair and slammed the back of his head into the floor again and again. Bang. Bang. Bang! The blows were so fierce the floor cracked. Jaeyeon thrashed violently, striking back, but Yun didn’t even flinch — his arm moved relentlessly.

For a moment, I thought Jaeyeon might actually die.

He didn’t — but by the end, bleeding and battered, he lost consciousness.

The surroundings fell silent at once. Yun released his grip on Jaeyeon’s hair and slowly straightened.

“Yun.”

I rasped his name, my voice hoarse. Yun’s reply came in a dry, quiet tone.

“You going to die right now?”

Even without expression, the fury radiating from my superior was palpable. I slowly shook my head.

“I’ll live. Please check on Yehyeon.”

Yun looked at me for a moment, then turned away.

He stepped over the unconscious Jaeyeon and went to our mangled superior. I followed him with my eyes.

Seeing Yehyeon again — motionless, drenched in blood — made fear sink in at last.

His condition?

He had clearly lost too much blood. Yun knelt beside him and gently turned the limp body over. Strands of hair slid aside, revealing the pale face of the unconscious man.

A waxy, deathly pallor.

At least there were no visible wounds.

“Better than usual,” Yun murmured.

“So it’s too much even for him to beat two people at once, huh.”

Is that really something to say in front of someone nailed through the limbs?

But I kept quiet. I knew Yun had dealt with this kind of scene too often, and that’s why he’d been on edge throughout the entire assembly. Expressionless, he checked the pulse, inspected the injuries, then took a syringe of blood from his inner pocket and injected it into Yehyeon before standing up.

Then he came to me.

“You’ll need hospitalization too.”

“What about the ambulance?”

“It’s probably on its way. I sent our coordinates to my aide.”

“It’s not just bruises. He’s got internal injuries. Please keep an eye on him.”

“His organs are probably shattered. But his recovery rate is high — yours isn’t.”

Yun answered plainly and knelt before me, taking a small emergency kit from inside his coat.

I sat still as he wrapped and bandaged my bleeding arm.

There was no expression on his face. But I knew that was because he was barely holding his rage in check. One wrong move and he might explode — might kill the unconscious Jaeyeon right here. He was forcing down the boiling anger until it was ice-cold.

Because he couldn’t kill Jaeyeon.

Colton’s subordinate. His one untouchable exception.

If you kill the right hand of the man sitting at the top, catastrophe will follow — unavoidable, unstoppable. Even if fate favored them and they somehow managed to bring Colton down, the cost would be immense. My superior and Yehyeon weren’t foolish enough not to see that.

That’s why they had endured until now.

Even from before I fell out of the Portal...

“Hildebert.”

Yun finished bandaging my arm and met my eyes.

I looked back silently.

After a long pause, my superior finally spoke — his voice dry, rasping.

“Good work.”

That was the highest praise Yun ever gave me.